95 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN 
AGRICULTURE.! 
It is not easy to frame a concise definition of what is meant 
by agricultural education, though it may be regarded as em- 
bracing a knowledge of the soil, of the plant, and of the animal. 
An adequate knowledge under these three heads must neces- 
sarily involve considerable time in its acquirement, and it offers 
a wide field of study and investigation for anyone who would 
wish to be, in the true sense of the term, a thorough agricul- 
turist. Thanks to the progress of science during these later 
years, the means whereby it is possible to acquire a knowledge 
of the soil, of the plant, and of the animal have been much 
increased ; consequently there is less excuse to-day than there 
was thirty or forty years ago for ignorance respecting what 
may be regarded as common agricultural knowledge. 
Notwithstanding this, the fact remains that a knowledge 
of the soil, of the plant, and of the animal will not, by itself, 
make a man an agriculturist. He must acquire this knowledge 
on the one hand, but, on the other hand, he has to familiarise 
himself with the means and the methods by which the farmer is 
brought into relationship with the soil, with the plant, and 
with the animal — in a word, with that which is embodied in 
the comprehensive term " practice." 
There is still another side of .the farmer's life, which, for 
want of a better phrase, may be called the business side : not 
only has the farmer to possess a knowledge of the soil, the 
plant, and the animal, and to rightly appreciate his own rela- 
tion thereto, but he has to face his fellow men in the markets 
of the world. If he cannot successfully deal upon the markets, 
then his scientific education is practically of little use or value 
to him, for it is in the markets that the farmer must look for 
his final school of examination. No amount of scientific educa- 
tion, however thorough and comprehensive it may be, can be 
regarded as of practical agricultural value unless it is so made 
use of by the recipient that he can at the proper time focus, 
as it were, his energies on a given subject, and turn to the best 
advantage that which may come before him when he is brought 
face to face with the men from whom he has to buy and the men 
to whom he has to sell. A competent critic has dissented from 
' Based upon an address delivered before the Newcastle Farmers' Club, 
January 3, 185)1, 
